Taking and Dealing Damage

Taking normal damage from a mini jelly cube (left) and taking both normal and elemental damage from a Poison Knight (right).

Damage Colors: Dealing little damage is in gray (left), a normal amount of damage is in blue (middle), and dealing much more damage is in golden stars (right).

Damage Numbers: Dealing little damage is in small gray numbers (left), a normal amount of damage is in normal sized blue outlined numbers (middle), and dealing much more damage is in large brown outlined numbers (right).

When taking damage, a knight will see a visual indicator of colorful damage bars coming out of their knight. Each damage bar represents 1/4 of a health bar worth of damage, rounded up. However, this is not the minimum damage a knight can receive: Each health bar represents 40 points of damage, rounded. There are four types of damage a knight can take when facing monsters. The color of the damage bar indicates the type of damage taken: red for normal, yellow for piercing, green for elemental, and purple for shadow.

In some circumstances, a knight with at least 1.5 bars of health may survive an otherwise fatal attack with 1 bar of health remaining. Which hazards and players can be hit by and still survive using this method has remained largely untested, although different armors (not necissarily better ones, however) tend to do this to different degrees. For instance, knights wearing most 1 and 2 star armors can very reliably walk over spike traps of any tier and survive if they have 1.5 bars of health, however a player wearing Ancient Plate Mail cannot.

When dealing damage by attacking monsters with weapons, each individual knight will see what damage they are doing in the form of colors coming from the monster(s) that has been hit. The color depends on the amount of damage done to monsters. If a monster is resistant to a damage type, the hit will appear gray. If the monster has an average resistance to a damage type, the hit will appear blue. If the monster is weak against a damage type, then the hit will be golden with stars popping out.

There is a "Show Attack Damage" checkbox in your options if you wish to see numbers for your damage being dealt. The color and size of the numbers depends on the amount of damage done to monsters. If a monster is resistant to a damage type compared to baseline, the numbers will appear small and gray. If the damage dealt is around the baseline, the numbers will appear normal-sized and blue. If the damage dealt is much higher than the baseline, then the numbers will appear large-sized and brown. This will be in addition to the color indicators described above.

In certain conditions, the color of the damage numbers(grey/blue/golden) will incorrectly represent the amount of relative damage that was done. This is most noticeable against the Royal Minis in the Royal Jelly Palace.

Damage bonus

Damage bonuses are abilities that can be found inherently on some equipment, such as the bonus versus Fiends on Radiant Sun Shards, or in the form of unique variants. Damage bonuses can be either global, effective versus all enemies, or specific, as is the case with Radiant Sun Shards. Damage bonuses are cumulative in additive fashion, and each level grants approximately a 7% bonus.

Damage Types

All standard damage in Spiral Knights can be categorized into one of four types of damage. Similarly, all defense gained from gear can be categorized into these damage types.

Attacks may have a dual damage type. This is basically treated as two attacks happening simultaneously. For example, a fiery sword may output 25 normal damage and 25 elemental damage with each strike.

Normal Damage

Normal damage is the most common damage type encountered, and is the baseline, in a sense. Most weapons deal normal damage, and most armor provides, if nothing else, defense against normal damage. Enemy attacks that deal normal damage are telegraphed by a red circle and lines at the enemy's feet as it prepares the attack.

Sources of Normal Damage

All monsters deal only Normal damage in Tier 1, and a portion of Normal damage in Tier 2.

Piercing Damage

Piercing damage originates from attacks designed to bypass armor. Some weapons deal piercing damage, as do floor spikes and some monster attacks. Enemy attacks that deal piercing damage are telegraphed by a yellow circle and lines at the enemy's feet as it prepares the attack.

Elemental Damage

Elemental damage is generally caused by energy based attacks that are comprised of anything from photon-based laser fire to arcane energy manipulation. Enemy attacks that deal elemental damage are telegraphed by a green circle and lines at the enemy's feet as it prepares the attack.

Shadow Damage

Shadow damage is caused by concentration of negative energy and weapons forged from dark matter. Enemy attacks that deal shadow damage are telegraphed by a purple circle and lines at the enemy's feet as it prepares the attack.

Damage distribution

In tier 1, all monster attacks deal normal damage only, regardless of the telegraphed circle's color at the enemy's feet. (This rule does not apply on Elite Difficulty for tier 1.)

In tier 2, some monster attacks deal normal damage, and some deal a mixture of normal and another damage type. All monster attacks deal at least partially normal damage.

In tier 3, some monster attacks deal normal damage, some deal a mixture of normal and another damage type, and some attacks deal pure damage of a non-normal type.

Monster Resistances

Each of the six monster families has a damage type they are weak to, one they are neutral to and one they are strongly resistant to. Each member of that family shares the same damage resistances, so if a Zombie happens to be weak to elemental damage, a Spookat will be as well. Using the information in this table will help you to adjust your equipment strategically to do damage types that your expected foes are weak to, or stick with normal damage, which all monsters resist at the same rate.

Healing

A Silkwing healing a Jelly Cube showing numbers (left), and a Silkwing healing a Lumber without numbers (right)

There are some monsters which can mend or heal other monsters. This includes Silkwings and Gremlin Menders; other Gremlins can consume health capsules to heal themselves, oilers will heal when burned and quicksilvers can heal when supercharged. This is represented visually in the form of red hearts coming from the monster(s) that has been healed.

When poisoned, monsters cannot heal themselves or regenerate, and will even lose health if a Gremlin Mender or a Silkwing tries to heal one: hence, poisoning a group of monsters in a arena when such a monster is nearby may make defeating them considerably easier.